


Short 25 - Moving On

by stgjr



Series: "The Power of a Name" Series 2 - "Time Lord Triumphant" [24]
Category: BattleTech: MechWarrior, Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Multi-Fandom
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 15:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10721916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: Our narrator tries to get on with things, but are his feelings of grief and frustration making him reckless?





	Short 25 - Moving On

I said before that I'd returned to the Federated Commonwealth twice after Prince Victor ever so kindly insisted I leave it. The first return was to visit Katherine's grave and leave her flower there.  
  
Afterward I returned to the TARDIS and remained alone for a time. Alone with my thoughts, my pain, my _frustration_.  
  
I was frustrated with many things. With my passivity, my caution, with the forces that had claimed my Companions in my travels, with so many things.  
  
I had always been so worried about changing timelines. Acting only when it felt safe. Only when my caution let me. And because of this, I had let problems fester. I could have put Ryan Steiner down with contemptuous ease. I could have dismantled the Borg when the Collective first formed or at many points in their history. I did not do these things because I was trying to be a responsible time traveler.  
  
And what had it gotten me?  
  
No, I could do more. I could do so much more. I could help so many more people, put down so many horrors and evils... why didn't I? Because I thought I knew where a timeline "should" go? Hadn't I already changed some? I'd ensured Shepard's victory over the Reapers was total, hadn't I? I'd saved Homura Akemi from being corrupted by her twisted feelings of love and pain. I'd stopped the Cylon genocide of the Twelve Colonies.  
  
Whatever I was before, this is what I had become: the Doctor. I healed people. I healed worlds.  
  
 _Why wasn't I doing more?_  
  
I thus returned to the Federated Commonwealth. To the other end of it, actually, as I materialized the TARDIS on New Avalon; throne world of House Davion.  
  
NAIS' medical center was teeming with activity, treating desperate medical cases from across the planet, indeed, across much of the Commonwealth. I had the psychic paper ready as I navigated the facility until I found what I was looking for in the pediatric wing.  
  
Bodyguards halted my progress at one door momentarily. I remained quiet and gave off an air of contained annoyance as they went over the psychic paper's professed ID. "Sorry, Doctor, we haven't seen you before," one apologized, returning the psychic paper. "Please sign in."  
  
"Right." I scribbled an alias. No, it was not John Smith.  
  
It was John Smith- _Stevens_. Far more original.  
  
Once I was inside I found a lush private suite for a child. Toys were everywhere and a holovid player was active with a cartoon of some sort. I walked up to the weak little boy in the bed. His head was bald from the chemotherapy that made up part of his treatments. His chart marked him as a minor nobleman's child, but I knew better. "Hello, Joshua," I said quietly.  
  
Joshua Marik looked up from what would become his deathbed and fixed his eyes on me. "Who are you?"  
  
"I'm the Doctor, dear lad." I ran the sonic screwdriver over him. "Coming to check up on you, get you back on your feet, and bring you back to your Dad."  
  
And at that point, I pulled out the TARDIS remote.  
  
So, yes, I took Joshua Marik from the NAIS. I did it to save his life. And I did it quietly and bluntly in a matter that would potentially ruin many lives... billions if something adverse were to happen.  
  
That, of course, is with the advantage of hindsight. At the time, I was doing what I thought was right and, frankly, not giving a damn about Inner Sphere politics.  
  
  
  
  
Several days later in my time stream, I materialized the TARDIS in Thomas Marik's study. Yes, the fake Thomas, but I like him more anyway, so there.  
  
The door opened and Joshua, more fit than ever, rushed forward yelling, " _Daddy!_ "  
  
A scarred face turned in his chair and looked at us in shock. "Joshua?!" The Captain-General of the Free Worlds League was incredulous as his son jumped into his lap. He hugged the boy tightly. "How.... you've never looked...."  
  
"The Doctor took me to see aliens, and the three-legged lady was nice, and the blob man, and the talking tree!" Joshua began to go on breathlessly, in that way excited children can, about Layom Station.  
  
By that point Thomas was looking at me with happy astonishment. "So you're him," he said. "You're the Doctor."  
  
"Yes," I answered simply.  
  
"I've... I can't believe it. Did Prince Victor..."  
  
"I'm sure your intelligence service has long pegged me as a Commonwealth man, sir, but that is not accurate," I answered. "I am a Time Lord. I answer to no authority save my own."  
  
Thomas remained quiet for a moment. "So you took my son from NAIS without Victor's approval?" He drew in a breath when I nodded. "That was a very reckless thing. Now Victor has reason to fear I will stab him in the back."  
  
"If I had not acted, Captain-General, your son would have died within two years," I replied. "And Victor would have tried to follow his father's plans for that eventuality. He would have hid Joshua's death from you and put an imposter in his place." I saw Thomas' expression darken at that. "Victor is inexperienced in the ways of statesmanship, you know that as well as I. Removing that temptation keeps the peace between your realms. Now you can focus on the Clans."  
  
"I wonder..." Thomas stroked his son's head. Hair was only starting to return to Joshua' scalp at this point. "You have given me much to think about, Doctor. I agree with you on Victor's shortcomings. You have my gratitude for saving my son's life."  
  
I nodded, accepting his thanks.  
  
"But Doctor..." Thomas shook his head. "You have such power. And now you poison me against Prince Victor with what he might have done. Should you be speaking of such things? The knowledge and power you show is frightening in the implications of its use."  
  
"Yes," I agreed. "And that is why I am cautious with my knowledge. However, you misunderstand my motives. I speak to you of Victor's short-comings so that you know what you're seeing is not outright malice. Whatever my... _disagreements_ with him, I am not against him succeeding, and that means having your patience. I have removed the one object that would have made you strike at him."  
  
"I see." For a time he was thoughtful. "Yes, I see your point." Thomas nodded quietly. He glanced down at his son and, for the first time, I saw tears in his eyes. The shock had given way; he was realizing that his son would live now. He would grow up and be happy. "Doctor, you have given me my son back. If you ever have need of my aid, ask and I will grant it."  
  
"Your offer is appreciated, Captain-General. If I ever need to accept it, I assure you it will be for the right reasons." I nodded at him.  
  
"And may I give you a piece of advice, Doctor?"  
  
I gave Thomas another nod.  
  
His voice turned very gentle. "I know how much Princess Katherine meant to you. You have my deepest condolences. Please, for the sake of Katherine's memory and yourself, don't let it drag you down. She would want you to move on, Doctor. For your own good."  
  
My expression froze. I bit back any immediate angry response I felt like giving. "I appreciate the advice, Captain-General, I really do," I answered him. "But it is easier said than done. She was taken from me so soon, so early. I'll be feeling that loss for a long time."  
  
"I never expected otherwise. But pain can twist us. It can make people do things they should not. Don't let it change what you are. A being with your power could become... terrible."  
  
I had no reply to that. I simply returned to the TARDIS.  
  
  
  
  
Once I was in the seclusion of my TARDIS and had her somewhere quiet, I found myself alone with my thoughts again. I chastised myself over how reckless I'd been, even as another voice pointed out that it was the right thing to do, Victor's wishes be damned.  
  
After all, hadn't I just stopped the creation of the Chaos March? Thomas Marik would never be moved to seizing worlds from Victor and aiding Sun-Tzu Liao into doing the same. The collapse of government authority and the matching rise in Blakist power in the region would never happen now. There would be no terror on worlds like Zurich now.  
  
And there was still so much I could do...  
  
And yet, was it wise to do them? How much damage might I cause from thoughtless actions?  
  
These questions, these problems, rumbled in my head.  
  
At least until the message played.  
  
Something on the TARDIS control panel lit up. I noticed it and looked up in time to see a holographic projection of Katherine. It looked to come from some time back, before our participation in the Fall of Guardia. " _My dear Doctor._ " Katherine looked uncomfortable for a moment. " _I'm sorry, I'm just trying to think of how to say this. Yes. My Doctor, if you are seeing this recording, something terrible happened. I don't know what it would be, but I do know it's caused me to stop traveling with you. I may even be dead. Oh, how macabre to be speaking of such._ "  
  
I nodded in sad agreement.  
  
" _Whatever happened to me, Doctor, I don't want to blame yourself. I know how dangerous it can be out here. I came anyway. And..._ " Her image looked down. I thought I saw her tearing up. " _I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm just scared for you. I know now why you always seemed to look the same when you came for my birthdays. I know why you always seemed so sad. You lost Jan and Cami. You were alone. And I don't want to have that happen to you again._ "  
  
I felt a tear on my cheek. And yet a prickling sense of what was to come...  
  
Katherine blinked back tears in the holo. " _I thought of what I could do to keep you from ever suffering like that. And I realized that you already had the means. It would be a way to... to bring me back. In a matter of speaking._ "  
  
My mouth opened. Already hope was welling up within me. I was considering what she meant...  
  
....and then she confirmed it. Katherine's image held up a device I was rather familiar with. She held a key on it until the red light on the end became a blinking green light. " _This was the scanner you talked about, the one you used to help bring back those girls in Mitakihara. Now you can use it to restore me as I am now. I don't know how to update it so I may be a bit younger than when I... left you. But now you won't have to be alone again. I'll be waiting for you, Doctor._ "  
  
Her image winked out. Even before it did so, I was moving. I ran to the lower floor of the control chamber. The damaged quantum compiler I had used to bring mortal forms back to Madoka, Sayaka, and Nagisa was still in its corner. The quantum scanner was still in its port. I pulled it out and fumbled it in my hand out of excitement, desperate to see the light blink....  
  
.... _green_.  
  
There was an active quantum signature in the scanner.  
  
"Oh, you brilliant girl," I said, the tears in my eyes turning happy. "You _brilliant_ girl!" I put the scanner back and rushed back up to the TARDIS control. I thought my hearts would explode with the sensation of hope swelling within them. My hands nearly tripped over themselves from my raw excitement as I began setting the TARDIS to a new destination. "Just you wait! I'll get you back, Katherine! We'll run again! We're going to run and run and keep on running!"  
  
With hope in my hearts, I pulled back on the TARDIS activation lever.  
  
It would take me time. It would be potentially dangerous. But I was going to rebuild my compiler.  
  
I would bring Katherine back. And then everything would be alright.


End file.
